Changed
by Itisjustmyself
Summary: "What's up?" "Nothing much." He answered pretty unclear. His eyes were bloodshot. "You know I don't believe you. I know you better than that. Something's wrong." I could have told that something was wrong from only hearing that sentence. R&R please Eclare


**So here it is. My first Degrassi fanfiction. It's kinda AU and the characters are a little OOC, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from the show Degrassi, but I do own my plot. **

_**Changed**_

I threw my helmet into the case that was situated under the seat of my scooter. Turning around, I placed my bag over my shoulder and looked at the boys standing next to me. There were five of them, all placing items in their scooters. Each morning we drove to school together. At first it had been kinda uncomfortable for me, but as time had passed the guys had accepted me and now I was the girl in the group. Most other girls of the school thought I was insane, because the helmet would ruin my hair, but I didn't really care. Usually I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, so it didn't really matter that I wore a helmet. It was fun driving the scooter and being together with the guys… Well, let's just say that sometimes they were easier to handle than girls, and they were a little less bitchy. Standing there I looked at the guys, all of them had grown a lot in the last months and were taller than me. I wasn't small, but all of them were almost 6 feet. The guy that had put his things into the green and black scooter next to me looked up and I smiled at him. He smiled back, but the smile never reached his eyes, they stayed distant and empty like they had the last five weeks. Sad I turned around and started walking towards the school building. I couldn't explain why, but he had changed.

Two hours later I was sitting in my History class trying to follow the unbelievably boring teacher that stood in front of me. I just decided that paying attention made no sense, when my best friend Alli whispered my name. I turned to look at her and she gave me a small piece of paper. I opened the note and read.

"How was it today? Is he still as strange as he was the last days?" I sighed and scribbled down my answer.

"Yes, sadly. I have no idea what's going on. He won't talk to me, but he has changed over the holidays." I passed the note back to her and leant back in my chair. The note was about him. Elijah Goldsworthy. Last year we had gotten pretty good friends, but this year everything was different. He had been that kind of guy that was at every party, always drinking more than everybody else, but never as drunken as the other guys. He had always laughed and been in the centre of attention. Always been together with the populars and surrounded by girls. And now? The exact opposite of the person he used to be. He was never at parties and hang out with the boys that cared mostly about technology and computers. He never was at parties and didn't talk anymore. Last year we chatted for hours, but now. Nothing. At first I thought I was imagining it, but then my friends had asked me if I knew what was wrong with him. Nobody knew it. Of course, his father had started working here as a teacher, but that couldn't change a whole person, could it? Alli gave the note back and I looked at it again.

"I'm so sorry for you. I wish we knew what was up with him." I smiled sadly at her. That was the real problem with him changing and stopping to talk. Over the last year we had talked often, as our good friends were the same persons and slowly I felt myself crushing on him. We went into the summer holidays being the same friends we had been over the last months, but when we returned he had stopped talking to me. All I got on our first day back at school was a smile without his eyes and a small hello. That day I noticed something was off, but I thought he just had a bad day. Sadly it wasn't just a bad day, he had been like this since the first day back at school and that had been over five weeks ago.

"It's okay. It's just… you would think I would stop crushing on him, because he's a different person, but it just keeps getting worse." I wrote down

"Maybe you should just walk up to him and start talking." Alli suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." I answered. "But, maybe he just doesn't want to talk to me again…"

"I don't think so. You guys talked so much last year. There has to be a reason he changed, I don't think he doesn't like you anymore." I nodded slightly. "Tomorrow is the Halloween party at the school. He has to be there and I am 100 percent sure the guys are going to organize some alcohol. Maybe if you get him drunk he'll tell you what's up. You know what they say: Drunken words are spoken by sober hearts." I smiled at my friend, not sure if I would really get him drunk, but thankful she was trying to help me.

The next day I was getting myself ready for the party and discussing what to do with Eli. On the one hand I really wanted to know what was up with him, but on the other hand I didn't want to make him drunken on a school party, because I was just curious. I looked at myself in the mirror, checking my outfit. I was wearing a violet dress with black jeggings under it and violet chucks. My hair was open and I had some soft waves in it. Nodding to myself I turned around and walked out of my room. My mom would drive me tonight, because I was pretty sure that the guys would have alcohol with them and I didn't want to risk being caught drunk on my scooter.

When we arrived at the school, there were already many students standing together in groups and talking. I said bye to my mom and went inside to look for Alli. It only took me seconds to find her, because she had waited at the door for me. We hugged and I told her I liked her outfit. She was wearing a long red dress and black high heels, what looked astonishing on the beautiful girl in front of me. We decided to go and talk to some friends and finally landed on a sofa in a quieter corner. The others were talking and laughing together, but I was spaced out a little. I was watching Eli, who was leaning on the wall a few meters away from me. He just stood there, a glass in his hand and his headphones in his ears. He was starring at the people that were dancing in front of him, but seemed as if he wasn't really looking. Watching him stand there made me fall even harder for him. Girls don't fall for guys if they score a goal at the football game or when they are the one that can drink the most, but when they stand there, looking totally lost and alone in this world.

As the evening passed, most of the students went outside the building onto the sport courts or the little park that belonged to our school. Alli and me were sitting on roots of a huge tree and watched guys and girls of our class drinking and having fun, when Eli's friend Drew sat down next to Alli. He held out a beer bottle to her. "Wanna drink too?" he asked her. "Come on, it's fun." She looked at me and I smiled and nodded, so she got up and went away with Adam. I looked around and saw somebody walking away into the small forest next to our school. I looked more closely and recognized the person. The way his hair was bouncing when he walked and how he moved his feet were unmistakable. I got up and followed him quickly into the shadows of the trees. Shortly after I entered the forest I saw him sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree, his head in his hands. Quietly I walked up to him. "May I sit down?" I asked him. He looked up at me, shrugged his shoulders and took another sip out of his almost empty bottle. "What's up?" I asked him, while sitting down. "Nothing much." He answered pretty unclear. He smelled like a bottle of vodka and his eyes were bloodshot red. "You know that I don't believe you. I know you better than that. Something is wrong with you." I told him honestly. I could have told that something was wrong without seeing him, only from hearing that sentence. He looked up at me. "I can't tell you. I can't tell anybody." Then he emptied the bottle, he had in his hands. I leant back and starred at the night sky above us, while he took out a new flask from his pockets. He held it out for me, so I grabbed it and took a few sips. We just sat there for a while starring at the dark sky before I tried once again to get an answer out of him. "You know sometimes it's better to talk about your problems instead of keeping them all locked up in yourself. You can talk to me and I'll listen to you, if you want to." I told him softly. He turned to me, looking straight into my eyes that were centered on him. "Okay, I'll tell you." He answered his voice ice cold and his red eyes without any emotion in them. "I could have gone away this summer. I could have gotten a place at one of the best handball teams in the country, but I would have had to move." I frowned. That was strange. Eli was an unbelievably good handball player. And I didn't just say that, he was one of the teenagers the national team was watching carefully. He was one of twenty young players that had a good chance of becoming national team, and he was one out of two keepers. "And why didn't you go?" I asked him carefully. He closed his eyes before replying. "Because of her. Because I was so stupid to think I would stay here so I could be together with the girl I love." The moment that sentence left his lips, I felt a sharp stab in my heart. He was in love. I swallowed hard, I mean I had knew that we would never be together. He was the best looking guy in school, he had a brilliant future and on the top of all it he was incredibly nice. And me, well I was some girl, not really pretty or ugly, no special talent and no chance to get some guy like him to fall for me. I had known it all along, but hearing it from him was more painful than I had imagined. "And when you're in love with her... what's wrong?" I inquired. "She doesn't know and I did never tell her before it was too late." He whispered. "I fell in love and decided I would stay here instead of going away. Because of her. She went away for holidays the next day. I didn't see her for six weeks. And then the first school day, when I finally got to see her again she was standing there with Adam…" His voice broke as he spoke the last word. Adam had been his best friend before he had changed and as it seemed Adam had gotten the girl Eli had wanted. Of course, it was difficult for Eli to look into his friends eyes now. "He was hugging her and they were smiling brightly. And I knew that she was exactly his type. Adam liked that type of girls… but I hadn't fallen for her looks like he had. I had fallen for her smile, the way she could make me laugh, the way she cared for others. I love her for herself." He spoke sadly. I smiled slightly. Even though it hurt hearing him say such things over a different girl, it was cute. The boy that had been a real player was now talking about this girl and you could hear his love in every word. "I'm sorry for you." I told him "And I mean it, but do you know for sure that she likes Adam?" "How could she not?" I laughed a little at this and he looked strangely at me. "Why are you laughing?" he demanded. "It doesn't mean she is falling for him, when a girl hugs a boy and smiles." I told him and continued even though I knew that I was probably ruining my last chance with him. I just couldn't stand to see him this sad any longer. "Maybe you should just tell her. Go to her and say it. If she has the slightest piece of intelligence, she will choose you. I'm pretty sure." And then I added a little smiling at him. "Girls notice it, when guys just like them for their looks, you know." Staring at me he asked. "Do you really think so?" I nodded at him. "Yes." He started moving and I was expecting him to stand up and go look for his dream girl, but he didn't. Before I could realize what was happening, he crashed his lips onto mine. The moment our lips touched, my brain dissolved into thin air. Everything around us disappeared. Everything that mattered was here. Nothing could have ruined it. The kiss was perfect. After, what had seemed like forever, we pulled away, both gasping for air. I looked at the boy in front of me and felt tears running down my cheeks. "Don't cry, please. I… I… I didn't mean to. Just forget it. I'll never do it again." He stammered. I laughed and hit him in the chest. "Don't you dare never kiss me again!" Now he was completely confused. "You want me to kiss you? But why are you crying?" "I am a girl, that's why I am crying. The kiss was perfect. And of course I want you to kiss me." I told him. Then I leant towards him, softly pecking him on the lips before hugging him. I buried my face in his shoulder and whispered. "I love you, Elijah Munro Goldsworthy." "Well, that's good, because I love you Clare Marie Edwards." He whispered back. And then he kissed me again and when I had thought our first kiss was perfect, I was now disproven.

**I don't know if those names, mentioned up there, are their real second names. Acctually I am pretty sure they're not their real ones, but I needed them, because I thought a full name would sound way better there.**


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